Outdoor enthusiasts are always looking for ways to enhance their experience whether it be in hunting, hiking, or camping. But what if I told you that the best way to do that was through the use of printed electronics? The truth is, printed electronics are the future of these activities. When it comes to being outdoors, the use of printed electronics can drastically improve the experience that you have. Through the use of these printed electronics, the only thing you’ll have left to worry about is enjoying yourself and your experience.
An uncommon, but drastically growing market for printed heaters today is for outdoor enthusiasts, with special consideration to avid hunters. However, before getting into the different applications for printed heaters within these activities, you may find yourself curious as to what printed heaters are.
Printed heaters are warming elements that are screen printed onto flexible materials. These printed heaters are created from a full range of conductive, resistive, or positive temperature coefficient inks, and are combined with flexible substrates. Once these heaters are printed, they are capable of being implemented into just about anything. They can also be made to specific operating temperatures and can be self-regulating, meaning there is no possibility of them overheating.
But what is the best part of printed heaters? The fact that they are battery-operated, meaning they’re portable and don’t involve the bulky wires and outlets oftentimes associated with other heating elements.
When it comes to the different applications for printed heaters uses, the opportunities are only as large as your imagination. Printed heaters are capable of being integrated into just about every article of clothing that you’d wear while enduring harsh temperatures. Examples would be adding heaters into items such as your coat, hat or gloves. Printed heaters are also capable of being added to the insoles of your boots. By having these printed heaters added into various articles of clothing that you would wear while outdoors, it can eliminate the painful coldness that oftentimes comes along with the outdoor experience.
Printed heaters could also be designed for use with sleeping bags for camping. The printed heater can be bonded to the fabric of the sleeping bag. Since the battery for the printed heater is small and portable, it would eliminate the need for an outlet as opposed to the traditional “heated blanket” that involves both an outlet and bulky wires.
Printed heaters can also be added to portable heated seats and cushions that can be used while hunting or camping. The heaters would resemble that of a heated seat within your automobile so that you can sit on the heated cushion while being outdoors in extreme temperatures. However, because this heated cushion would be battery operated, it can be taken anywhere, meaning that it could be utilized in far more scenarios than just for outdoor use.
Biosensors are screen printed sensors that measure your vitals, as well as muscle activity. Biosensors can be utilized in several different scenarios but are especially helpful for those who enjoy hiking outdoors. Biosensors are oftentimes used with compression clothing to measure vitals such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and brain activity. Aside from your health, biosensors are also capable of monitoring muscle activity. This involves monitoring muscle symmetry, muscle fatigue, and load.
The application opportunities for biosensors are infinite, especially for avid hikers. If you’re interested in hiking, you’d know that tracking distance, speed, and acceleration are oftentimes important. With the combination of biosensors and GPS, this information is all easily trackable. Using this combination, you can measure how far you’ve traveled, the speed that you’ve traveled at, and your acceleration while hiking all quickly and easily. This is made possible because biosensors can be implemented into the clothing that you wear while hiking.
Because biosensors can monitor an individual’s vitals, it makes health monitoring easily trackable from a remote location. You’d be made immediately aware if any of your vitals escaped their normal range such as your respiratory or heart rate. The use of these biosensors could even help to catch a heart attack before it occurs. Because of the endless application possibilities for biosensors, it’s no surprise that there are several different uses for outdoor enthusiasts.
A force-sensing resistor (FSR) is a variable resistor, constructed of several thin flexible layers, that varies in resistance as pressure is applied and released. The main purpose of an FSR is to measure the pressure applied and send that information to an output device. Force sensing resistors are most commonly used within your shoes. Because they are thin and flat, they can be easily designed into the insoles of your shoes. This allows measurement and location of the pressure applied to the shoe, easily being able to track pressure displacement.
When it comes to activities such as hiking, it oftentimes means that you’ll be traveling far distances on your feet. Because of this, the use of FSR’s within your shoes is a great option. It will help to measure the pressure applied to your feet while walking and be capable of tracking exactly where the pressure was applied and how much pressure was applied. By being able to measure the pressure applied, you can make the correct fixes to your posture or how you walk, to correct the pressure being disproportionally distributed that you may not have realized before. Because of the many benefits of FSR’s, you could drastically improve your hiking experience.
LED circuits are printed electronics that can be utilized in several different markets. However, for outdoor enthusiasts LED lights can have several different application opportunities. Because they can be implemented into just about anything, their uses are as large as your imagination.
When it comes to the outdoors, there are many scenarios for how LED lights can be used. For instance, they can be implemented into the top of your tent, adding a lighting element for when nighttime hits. They can also be implemented into clothing for camping in the dark or hiking at night. LED Lights are oftentimes also implemented into hats for hunting or hiking. LED lights can be utilized in just about any scenario that may arise in the dark, the different applications for LED lights are endless.
RFID tags, or Radio-Frequency Identification tags, are another up and coming printed electronic that is gaining usage capabilities. Although they’re oftentimes used for inventory monitoring within warehouses and retail locations, their potential use is drastically increasing into other markets as well. For outdoor enthusiasts, RFID tags can also be used for inventory monitoring, just in a different way. If you’re an avid hunter or camper, you know that you have certain items that are a necessity to enjoy your experience. Using RFID tags, it helps to make inventory monitoring that much easier. By simply tagging each item needed with an RFID tag and placing an RFID reading device within the bag you plan to pack these items in, by one simple scan you can know whether you have all the necessary items packed for your trip. This can be for camping, hiking, or even hunting. By using RFID tags, it helps to ensure that you have all the items needed to successfully enjoy your trip no matter what you may be doing.
Printed electronics are a drastically increasing market that has been skyrocketing in recent years. Because of this, the application opportunities for printed electronics are also drastically increasing. For more information on Butler Technologies or our Printed Electronics capabilities, reach out!
Jaclyn is a Digital Marketing Specialist on the BTI Team. Her main job responsibilities involve inbound marketing, content creation, and social media management. To get to know more about Jaclyn, check her out on LinkedIn!